0:00:02 > 0:00:04In an idyllic Sussex landscape, created by master gardener
0:00:04 > 0:00:09"Capability" Brown, sits one of Britain's finest stately homes.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Petworth House.
0:00:13 > 0:00:18Thanks to the National Trust, it's now open to us all -
0:00:18 > 0:00:19except during winter,
0:00:19 > 0:00:24when, like most of the Trust's homes, Petworth shuts the public out.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29When the house IS closed, however, it's far from quiet.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37Normally nobody gets to see what happens here during the winter months, but this year
0:00:37 > 0:00:39I've been given unique privileged access
0:00:39 > 0:00:41to see what really goes on behind the scenes.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47When the public has gone, the National Trust's expert conservation teams
0:00:47 > 0:00:51get the chance to do some housekeeping - on an epic scale.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54'We get to see things up close that people don't see.'
0:00:54 > 0:00:56It's amazing - no-one else gets to do it!
0:00:57 > 0:01:02I had no idea, until I took on this task, quite how filthy the visitors were.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08'And this winter, Petworth's got a new cleaner.'
0:01:08 > 0:01:09I can see that I've made a difference.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11- Have you waxed it?- No.- No.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15'It's a rare chance to get hands-on with history.'
0:01:15 > 0:01:17- HE GROANS - It's heavy!
0:01:17 > 0:01:21'And glimpse the secret life of a great country house.
0:01:23 > 0:01:28'On this visit, I set sail across an 18th-century water feature.
0:01:28 > 0:01:31'Take on Turner with a hoover.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35'And care for some crumbling carvings.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41'I'm joining perhaps the biggest spring clean in the world -
0:01:41 > 0:01:45'which all takes place during the freezing months of winter.'
0:02:00 > 0:02:05In the depths of winter, the weather at Petworth is inhospitable,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and the house too is unwelcoming to visitors.
0:02:20 > 0:02:24It's now the private domain of Petworth's six-strong conservation team.
0:02:24 > 0:02:30They're giving each of the ten grand state rooms their annual MOT,
0:02:30 > 0:02:35scrutinising and cleaning them thoroughly from floor to ceiling.
0:02:37 > 0:02:41Next on their schedule is the Carved Room -
0:02:41 > 0:02:45perhaps the most spectacular space in the whole house.
0:02:45 > 0:02:46At its heart,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50are some late 17th-century creations by Grinling Gibbons.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56Miraculously lifelike evocations of nature, in delicate lime wood.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00Gibbons is quite simply the greatest wood carver Britain has ever known,
0:03:00 > 0:03:02and what he achieved here at Petworth
0:03:02 > 0:03:06is rated even more highly than his work at Windsor Castle
0:03:06 > 0:03:07or St Paul's Cathedral.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10There's one big difference, however,
0:03:10 > 0:03:12if you want to see it at this time of year.
0:03:14 > 0:03:16HE LAUGHS
0:03:16 > 0:03:21"In the bleak midwinter", it gets very, very dark at Petworth!
0:03:21 > 0:03:24It's a shame, because this is such a great, great room.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26Does it really have to be kept this dark?
0:03:26 > 0:03:31It does, yes, because this time of year it's not for us to enjoy,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33it's the protection of the collection,
0:03:33 > 0:03:34and by keeping the light levels low
0:03:34 > 0:03:36it's better for the objects in the room.
0:03:36 > 0:03:42If there's one thing I've learnt about the work that you do here, it's that you remove dust.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46This looks to me like the biggest challenge to dusting known to man -
0:03:46 > 0:03:49I mean, all these amazing Grinling Gibbons carvings.
0:03:49 > 0:03:50How are you going to go about it?
0:03:50 > 0:03:54Well, basically we're NOT any more. We stopped about two years ago.
0:03:54 > 0:03:55Even with the lightest brush?
0:03:55 > 0:03:57The carvings are too fragile.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58Over the years,
0:03:58 > 0:04:02with the woodworm damage and so on, the wood has broken down.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06It's like a honeycomb inside the actual wood, in lots of places.
0:04:06 > 0:04:07They are incredibly fragile.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10I've actually got some pieces here....
0:04:10 > 0:04:11These are bits of Grinling Gibbons?
0:04:11 > 0:04:15- Yeah. In actual fact, you can see a lighter piece of wood...- Oh, yes.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18..actually fell off. When they fall off, they shatter to dust.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20This is wood dust.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22We've been looking into new ways
0:04:22 > 0:04:27of how we can clean these carvings without actually touching them.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30I've got a few invisible men doing sort of untouchable cleaning(!)
0:04:30 > 0:04:33Because you CAN see the dust - you know, visitors comment.
0:04:33 > 0:04:35And it's not good enough just to say, "It's too delicate to touch
0:04:35 > 0:04:37"so we'll leave it",
0:04:37 > 0:04:40because leaving the dust itself is harmful - it attracts moisture -
0:04:40 > 0:04:43and once you get the moisture there it'll attract insects,
0:04:43 > 0:04:45and it will eventually cement itself on.
0:04:47 > 0:04:51This machine, improbably, CAN clean without touching.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56The Petworth team hope it might mean they can dust Gibbons's work again.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00It's about to have its first trial on the Carved Room's walls.
0:05:00 > 0:05:05In the war against dust, this is their most advanced weapon yet.
0:05:05 > 0:05:09It's a pretty high-spec compressor, and it basically
0:05:09 > 0:05:11fires air through this conventional airbrush.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15So the idea is we use the airbrush to blow away dust from the carvings,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18and the reason that we're trialling this one
0:05:18 > 0:05:21is that it is oil-free,
0:05:21 > 0:05:24and it takes the moisture out of the air that it's blowing out.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27It's not discharging anything harmful. It's very clean air.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32The compressor alone won't do the job.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37The team need something else, which is still at prototype stage.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Jacky is constructing a very specialised nozzle,
0:05:41 > 0:05:43for her vacuum cleaner.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46When we're blowing the dust off the carvings,
0:05:46 > 0:05:51we don't want the dust going everywhere, so the idea is
0:05:51 > 0:05:54that we'll hold this in front of the carvings,
0:05:54 > 0:06:01and the dust will all come down into here. We hope(!)
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Because the curtains will stay drawn until mid-March,
0:06:05 > 0:06:09the team will be working as ever under conservation lights.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15The trial is taking place on some later carvings, added in the 1820s -
0:06:15 > 0:06:17less fragile than the crumbling Gibbons originals,
0:06:17 > 0:06:20but still tricky to clean with a conventional brush.
0:06:25 > 0:06:31Alarmingly, some of what's first blown off looks too big to be dust.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Can you see what they are?
0:06:39 > 0:06:42- Is it wood shavings, from the carving?- Yeah.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45The big lumps you saw coming off, they're wood shavings.
0:06:45 > 0:06:51They're actually when the carving's has been carved, and you've got the shavings off the carvings basically.
0:06:51 > 0:06:56The jet of air has dislodged debris which has been trapped inside the frame since it was first made.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00They've been in there for nearly 200 years!
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Initial fears allayed,
0:07:04 > 0:07:09the team return to airbrushing away more recent signs of ageing.
0:07:09 > 0:07:11You can see the dust, Jacky, floating down the mirror...
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Although the compressor can clearly get to places a normal brush can't,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20at this stage the jury's still out
0:07:20 > 0:07:24as to whether it's right for the most fragile carvings.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27I think there needs to be more practice, because obviously with a brush it's
0:07:27 > 0:07:31much more controlled, and you can direct it into the hoover nozzle.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Whereas blowing the air off, it's ballooning.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37'The team feels it needs further testing,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39'and advice from a specialist consultant,
0:07:39 > 0:07:43'before they'd go ahead and use this on Gibbons's work.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48'It's clear that the National Trust takes dust incredibly seriously.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53'All of their working practices are backed up by their own scientific research.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58'I'm meeting a conservator who's led a decade-long investigation into the subject.'
0:07:58 > 0:08:01Some high-tech equipment!
0:08:01 > 0:08:07So is this going to contain the key to the mystery of dust that's been perplexing me?
0:08:07 > 0:08:09Well, we get a lot of dust in our collections,
0:08:09 > 0:08:13and we've been conducting research for the last ten years or so
0:08:13 > 0:08:16to try and discover the source of the dust.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19- Is this dust actually that you've collected here at Petworth?- Yes.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21- This is Petworth dust? - This is Petworth dust.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23What's it actually made of? What am I looking at?
0:08:23 > 0:08:26Well, you're looking at organic materials such as
0:08:26 > 0:08:31- skin flakes, little bits of insect, leaves, plants...- Yum-yum(!)
0:08:31 > 0:08:32..ground up every small,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37and inorganic material such as sand and grit, and then coloured
0:08:37 > 0:08:41fibres, which have probably come from visitors' clothing.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43In National Trust houses,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46it is the visitors who bring the dust into the collections.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51The Trust has been researching not just what dust IS,
0:08:51 > 0:08:54but how quickly it mounts up -
0:08:54 > 0:08:57co-funding the creation of the Dust-Bug.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02So this is a sort of prototype. Is that actually a camera?
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Yes, there's a camera inside, and then around the edge
0:09:05 > 0:09:08of the lens here there are little
0:09:08 > 0:09:13LED lights which come on, and they highlight the dust on the glass.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16We generally tend to take an image every night at midnight,
0:09:16 > 0:09:19so that we can get a picture of how much dust is accumulating
0:09:19 > 0:09:21on our collections day by day.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25I just like the idea of the special dust camera! But what kind
0:09:25 > 0:09:29of information do you actually get from it that's, so to speak, useful?
0:09:29 > 0:09:33Well, what I can show you here are some images which I've analysed
0:09:33 > 0:09:36from the Dust-Bug when it was in use here at Petworth.
0:09:36 > 0:09:41So, this is the amount of dust at the end of the first day...
0:09:41 > 0:09:43This is when the house is open, full flow, public coming in...
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Exactly. And after six days,
0:09:46 > 0:09:50- suddenly a very...- A galaxy of dust!
0:09:50 > 0:09:53A super cloud nebula of dust. Amazing.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56There was 9.6 percentage coverage,
0:09:56 > 0:10:01and we think that after about 2 to 3%, we should be cleaning surfaces
0:10:01 > 0:10:03because the dust is becoming too obvious.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Are Petworth visitors more dusty than your average visitor?
0:10:06 > 0:10:09- No.- No, it wasn't entirely being flippant...
0:10:09 > 0:10:14They have to come in through the park - I was wondering, do they bring bits of it with them?
0:10:14 > 0:10:18I think I'm always rather hoping for a stiff northeasterly gale,
0:10:18 > 0:10:22- that would blow the dust OFF them before they get into the building.- You arrange it(!)
0:10:22 > 0:10:24Maybe that's the next National Trust...
0:10:24 > 0:10:28De-dusting! It could be like the decontamination of a nuclear...
0:10:28 > 0:10:32Well, we have thought about putting people through an artificial doorway
0:10:32 > 0:10:35- with little jets of air coming off it.- You really have, haven't you?
0:10:35 > 0:10:37You really have. You're not joking.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41No, I'm not joking. And we're not the only people that have thought about it.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45If the Trust can't get all the dust off its visitors,
0:10:45 > 0:10:49it can at least try to control how far their dust spreads.
0:10:49 > 0:10:53Helen's demonstrating a standard Trust technique for measuring this.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Dust traps, in the form of sticky slides,
0:10:57 > 0:11:01are being placed at 50cm intervals from the path used by visitors.
0:11:01 > 0:11:04They'd normally be left down for several weeks,
0:11:04 > 0:11:08collecting any airborne particles floating near them.
0:11:09 > 0:11:10What we've discovered
0:11:10 > 0:11:12is that we get a significant amount
0:11:12 > 0:11:14of dust very close to the visitors,
0:11:14 > 0:11:18but with every additional half-metre distance
0:11:18 > 0:11:20the amount of dust drops off by half.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24So by the time we get to a metre and a half or two metres' distance
0:11:24 > 0:11:27between the visitor and the object,
0:11:27 > 0:11:29the amount of dust is significantly less.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33On the basis of these tests, do you decide where you put your ropes?
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Indeed. That's part of the point of them.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39It is to keep visitors sufficiently far away from the objects
0:11:39 > 0:11:44that we don't have to vacuum more than is good for the object.
0:11:45 > 0:11:50'The reason for Helen's lust to control dust
0:11:50 > 0:11:54'is clear when you contemplate the most fragile of historic items.'
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Wow...!
0:11:58 > 0:12:02'This Chippendale bed is now 240 years old,
0:12:02 > 0:12:05'and it's easy to see that its silk and velvet hangings,
0:12:05 > 0:12:09'woven in Spitalfields, are precariously delicate.'
0:12:09 > 0:12:14So when you look at a really fragile piece of textile like this,
0:12:14 > 0:12:16I mean, what damage ultimately can dust really do?
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Isn't it better just to leave it a bit dusty?
0:12:19 > 0:12:22Well, unfortunately the dust attaches itself to the textiles,
0:12:22 > 0:12:25and then it becomes much more difficult to get it off.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30- How does it DO that?- If you think of all those particles, some of them are soluble,
0:12:30 > 0:12:32so in high humidity they dissolve,
0:12:32 > 0:12:34and then in low humidity they harden again,
0:12:34 > 0:12:37and they form a little cement between the particles and the textile,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40so they're actually bonded together.
0:12:40 > 0:12:42So you're in a double bind, really -
0:12:42 > 0:12:44you don't want to let dust settle on them
0:12:44 > 0:12:46because of the problems associated with that,
0:12:46 > 0:12:48and yet on the other hand you don't want to clean them either,
0:12:48 > 0:12:53because you might be hoovering away precious strands
0:12:53 > 0:12:55that are holding them together. So what do you do?
0:12:55 > 0:12:59The point is that we're trying to establish, for each house
0:12:59 > 0:13:02and for each fragile material, how often
0:13:02 > 0:13:04something needs to be vacuumed,
0:13:04 > 0:13:09so that it's vacuumed when necessary but not as a matter of habit.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13Which all helps to explain why Grinling Gibbons's work
0:13:13 > 0:13:17IS currently in the category of too fragile to be cleaned -
0:13:17 > 0:13:19even with an airbrush -
0:13:19 > 0:13:23but there are other antiques in the Carved Room
0:13:23 > 0:13:26which the conservation team CAN get their hands on.
0:13:26 > 0:13:33These marble statues came to Petworth in the 1750s, but they began life in Ancient Rome.
0:13:33 > 0:13:38Recently though, one of these busts...got slightly busted.
0:13:38 > 0:13:42Here there was a piece of damage that was caused to this bust last winter,
0:13:42 > 0:13:46and we're getting in the experts to come and fix that this year.
0:13:46 > 0:13:48That's quite a big chip. How did that happen?
0:13:48 > 0:13:51When we move busts, the way we move them is to
0:13:51 > 0:13:55embrace them like this, so that the weight is fully in our bodies,
0:13:55 > 0:13:58and that additional pressure on that edge of the drapery
0:13:58 > 0:14:00caused that old repair to fail.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02You can see that there's old glue there,
0:14:02 > 0:14:04and that is always the weakest point on these things.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06So how do you fix something like that?
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Is there special marble Polyfilla(?)
0:14:09 > 0:14:10Or do you have an extra piece cut?
0:14:10 > 0:14:14When something comes off an object, we collect the bit that's fallen off
0:14:14 > 0:14:18or been knocked off, and we put it in what's called our "bits box".
0:14:18 > 0:14:22- HE LAUGHS - I like that! "Bits box", that's a good name.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29'Tucked away back stairs is the stately home equivalent of
0:14:29 > 0:14:31'that drawer in your kitchen where
0:14:31 > 0:14:34'you keep odds and ends you're not sure what else to do with.'
0:14:35 > 0:14:38Oh, open it! I want to see.
0:14:38 > 0:14:39As I was saying, every time something
0:14:39 > 0:14:42accidentally gets knocked off, we record it...
0:14:42 > 0:14:43That's a big bit to get knocked off.
0:14:43 > 0:14:48This is a piece of gilded carved decoration off one of the pier tables in the Beauty Room,
0:14:48 > 0:14:53and things like the bell calls from Mrs Wyndham's dressing room...
0:14:53 > 0:14:57And then this is from the cast-iron Tijou gates out in the park,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00so, you know, just as bits come off accidentally we pop them in the box.
0:15:00 > 0:15:06- Who dislodged this piece of carving? - That may have been me!- Oh!
0:15:06 > 0:15:10Sorry, I shouldn't have brought that up. How terribly tactless of me.
0:15:10 > 0:15:11These things do happen,
0:15:11 > 0:15:13I was cleaning underneath the table,
0:15:13 > 0:15:18and I came back out of it and wasn't quite low enough. Again, it's another failed old repair.
0:15:18 > 0:15:20I haven't actually contributed to the bits box yet...!
0:15:20 > 0:15:22One in five years isn't too bad.
0:15:22 > 0:15:26- This is our little bit... - That's the bit from the sculpture.
0:15:26 > 0:15:31So we knew exactly where to find that, rather than it being squirreled away in somebody's desk.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35To make the repair, Petworth have called in
0:15:35 > 0:15:39the National Trust's expert stone consultant Trevor Proudfoot.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44What I'm checking to see is the residue of the old restorer's glue,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49which presumably is from the 18th century, when these pieces were put on.
0:15:49 > 0:15:55The glue used to fix the bust 250 years ago was pine resin.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59Over time it's decayed from marble-matching white
0:15:59 > 0:16:01to mucky brown.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09The first treatment required for the distressed roman matron is nail varnish remover
0:16:09 > 0:16:12to eliminate any grime or grease.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Then it's time for the glue. These days acrylics are used
0:16:15 > 0:16:19because they're less likely to degrade over the decades.
0:16:19 > 0:16:24So, a small amount of adhesive goes on.
0:16:24 > 0:16:26Press them together now.
0:16:26 > 0:16:28For what we were after,
0:16:28 > 0:16:34which was an invisible repair, I would say that was invisible.
0:16:34 > 0:16:40Back in one piece, the bust can convalesce for the rest of the winter.
0:16:44 > 0:16:50Working in the Carved Room brings you face to face with different eras of Petworth's history.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56Much of what can be seen today dates back to the early 19th century when
0:16:56 > 0:17:01the house was remodelled to the taste of its most memorable owner.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05The third Earl of Egremont inherited Petworth in 1763.
0:17:05 > 0:17:07He was a true bohemian,
0:17:07 > 0:17:10not least in his love life.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14He was alleged to have had 43 children by a number of different mothers.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17All of whom lived in the house with him.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22The third Earl of Egremont would be in charge of the house for 70 years
0:17:22 > 0:17:26and he declared open house for creative types of all sorts.
0:17:26 > 0:17:30Artists would come and stay here for months, even years,
0:17:30 > 0:17:33studying the vast collections and creating works of their own.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36One of the most famous of them, John Constable,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39simply called this place "The house of art."
0:17:41 > 0:17:45So when the third Earl wanted a nice picture of his back garden,
0:17:45 > 0:17:50he could call on no less a painter than the greatest Britain has ever produced -
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Turner.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58In the 1820s, JMW was a frequent guest at Petworth.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02My next task is to look after some of the work he left behind.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05You're doing one of my favourite pictures in the house.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Ah, it's one of my favourite paintings too.
0:18:08 > 0:18:14So beautiful, isn't it? I just love that burning sun. So you're cleaning the frame?
0:18:14 > 0:18:17Yes, but I will also clean the surface of the painting.
0:18:17 > 0:18:18You clean the surface of the picture?
0:18:18 > 0:18:24With oil painting you get cracks in the surface of the painting and the dust can get in there and settle.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26Especially with Turner's slightly experimental technique.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30It's called craquelure isn't it? I like that word, craquelure.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39To expose any dust in the surface of the painting, the conservation light is shone close by at an angle.
0:18:39 > 0:18:46Our other tools are the softest of brushes, badger hair, and another manually modified nozzle.
0:18:46 > 0:18:53- We're going to use a crevice head with the net over the top.- Why the net?- Just in case a flake of paint
0:18:53 > 0:18:56did come off the surface, which we very much hope it wouldn't,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00it would not get sucked up the vacuum. We can get it.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04Oh, I see. yeah, yeah, yeah. So you look at your vacuum regularly as you do this
0:19:04 > 0:19:07to check that there aren't any chunks of paint.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10- Great. Thanks a lot. - Turner sunshine!
0:19:10 > 0:19:13I was very happy to be doing this job, now I feel apprehensive.
0:19:13 > 0:19:21Still, there's no denying that for a lifelong Turner enthusiast like me, this is housework from heaven.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24You might wonder why the third Earl
0:19:24 > 0:19:29would have had his prize Turners hung at this strange low height.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Well, the reason for that is because he turned this into his dining room.
0:19:32 > 0:19:38And so basically the idea was, if I take this steward's chair...
0:19:40 > 0:19:47..you'd sit here having your lunch and you'd have Petworth Park, seen from the house,
0:19:47 > 0:19:52painted by Turner on that side and looking over there, although I can't see it at the moment
0:19:52 > 0:19:58because the curtains are drawn, but over on that side you'd see the very same view that Turner painted.
0:19:58 > 0:20:02You'd get the reality and Turner's transformation of the reality in art all in one experience.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Oh, those were the days, eh?
0:20:07 > 0:20:12I've never been allowed to get quite this close to a Turner before.
0:20:12 > 0:20:14Not actually to touch it.
0:20:16 > 0:20:18So I feel a little bit...
0:20:18 > 0:20:22Sense of responsibility. But I'm going to touch it so gently
0:20:22 > 0:20:24as I've been told.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28This really is one of my favourite Turner pictures
0:20:28 > 0:20:30and it's very much...
0:20:32 > 0:20:36..the third Earl's Petworth. There's a cricket match going on.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40He loved cricket and Turner has made sure he's included a cricket match going on.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43Pass through the middle stump.
0:20:48 > 0:20:50I love this detail here.
0:20:50 > 0:20:55I just love that sort of lightly bruised bit of sky.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Really getting close to a Turner sunset...
0:21:01 > 0:21:03It is actually...
0:21:03 > 0:21:08The hair's on the back of my neck did actually just stand up.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10Isn't that extraordinary?
0:21:11 > 0:21:16Aristocratic visitors were often rather scandalised by the experience
0:21:16 > 0:21:20of coming to Petworth House and sitting at dinner with the third Earl and all his mistresses.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27Turner...
0:21:27 > 0:21:29was certainly not shocked.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33I think Turner was quite a sexual liberal himself
0:21:33 > 0:21:38so I think they had a certain degree of lasciviousness, if you like, in common.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42They certainly got on very, very well.
0:21:45 > 0:21:49All done. No bits of paint came off I'm glad to say.
0:21:50 > 0:21:53It's wonderful getting that close to it and I'm struck
0:21:53 > 0:21:57by this sort of seething profusion of deer.
0:21:57 > 0:21:59It's as if the deer have somehow run amok
0:21:59 > 0:22:03and I think that's how Turner saw the third Earl Petworth,
0:22:03 > 0:22:06as a kind of bohemian arcadia.
0:22:06 > 0:22:10A kind of paradise where in a sense anything goes
0:22:10 > 0:22:14and I just wonder if those deer don't somehow embody that thought.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20The Petworth parkland painted by Turner
0:22:20 > 0:22:23is pretty much unchanged to this day.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28The cricketers might not be here in winter, but the deer are as abundant as ever.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34The landscape is largely manmade.
0:22:34 > 0:22:40The man who made it being none other than Lancelot "Capability" Brown.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47When a view has been fashioned by Capability and painted by Turner,
0:22:47 > 0:22:49it's clearly worth preserving.
0:22:50 > 0:22:56Making sure the park still looks a picture is now the responsibility of head gardener Gary Liddle.
0:22:56 > 0:23:01This is Turner's Petworth House and the park, Dewy Morning. 1810.
0:23:01 > 0:23:04It's changed remarkably little, hasn't it?
0:23:04 > 0:23:07It has, but as you can see, the willow here
0:23:07 > 0:23:11that is possibly being planted in this particular painting
0:23:11 > 0:23:13is now a 250-year-old tree,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16so that's why the view has changed slightly from this position.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22A number of the other ornamental islands however have changed in ways that Brown never intended.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27They've been overrun by self-seeding rapidly-growing alder trees.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31Is it one of your jobs today
0:23:31 > 0:23:35to try and actually, as it were, bring this back to what it was?
0:23:35 > 0:23:39In a sense, yes. Obviously things grow and change the scale, but what
0:23:39 > 0:23:43we're doing today is removing some of what we call the weed trees.
0:23:43 > 0:23:49- The trees that have cluttered the islands.- That island there, that needs a haircut!- It does, yes.
0:23:49 > 0:23:51You can hardly see the house on that side.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54- It's spoiling our Turner. - Part of our job is to take those off
0:23:54 > 0:23:57and restore the islands to their former glory.
0:23:57 > 0:24:01- It's quite handy for you that Turner painted it. - It's a good reference point, yes.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Your boat isn't quite as impressive as that!
0:24:03 > 0:24:07No, but our boat is flat bottomed and it's a safe working platform.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Health and safety!
0:24:09 > 0:24:12We'd very much love to have something like this on the lake.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16I think your boat's a bit of a kitchen sink compared to that!
0:24:16 > 0:24:18It is, it's not very glamorous, is it?
0:24:22 > 0:24:24Nonetheless this unromantic vessel
0:24:24 > 0:24:29is coming to transport me to the island which is being cleared of weed trees today.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34The woodsman has to double as skipper.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37Can I just hold onto you? Oh, there we go.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40I've never rowed into the middle of a Turner painting before.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44No? Oh, right. It'll be your first time then!
0:24:44 > 0:24:48As water features go, this manmade lake wasn't cheap.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52In today's money, it cost over £2.5 million to create
0:24:52 > 0:24:56plus a further small fortune to stem regular leaks.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59Big old job to do on all these islands, isn't it?
0:24:59 > 0:25:01Yes, there are a lot of trees to thin out.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03They're quite romantic, all overgrown like this.
0:25:03 > 0:25:08They are at the moment, but the trouble is the trees can blow over in high winds
0:25:08 > 0:25:09and quite often it takes the root
0:25:09 > 0:25:11and the stump and then you get holes
0:25:11 > 0:25:14in the islands, so that's the main reason for doing it.
0:25:16 > 0:25:17Is this our island?
0:25:17 > 0:25:19Yes, that's the one.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22Starboard a bit. Land ahoy.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30Well, I managed to get my...
0:25:30 > 0:25:34foot well and truly down in the lake there.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38- Shall I follow you?- Yes, please.
0:25:38 > 0:25:43We're among the very few ever to have ventured into this West Sussex jungle.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47- Which tree are you going to be taking out, this one?- Yes. I'll attach the rope to it
0:25:47 > 0:25:49so we can drag it back to the mainland.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Let's go for it. Have you ever fallen in?
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Yes, I have, actually. One winter when it was very icy and snowy and
0:25:56 > 0:25:58managed to fall in and get drenched.
0:26:12 > 0:26:17That must be very satisfying in a slightly strange destructive way!
0:26:17 > 0:26:21It's funny because everyone else I've been in the house with, they've always been
0:26:21 > 0:26:25trying to look after things and here you are destroying them!
0:26:25 > 0:26:27We do a lot of destruction, yeah!
0:26:31 > 0:26:36As the short winter afternoon hurries to its end, Martin has to row quickly round
0:26:36 > 0:26:41to pick up the other end of his rope so that he can tow the felled tree
0:26:41 > 0:26:43back to the mainland.
0:26:44 > 0:26:48At this point, the rest of the gardening team springs into action.
0:26:53 > 0:26:58It's time for a tug of war between tractor and tree.
0:27:04 > 0:27:08Then as punishment for spoiling Turner's views, the overgrown alder
0:27:08 > 0:27:11faces the "Petworth Chainsaw Massacre."
0:27:16 > 0:27:23It's easy to track the progress made by the gardening team, but there is a lot more still to be done.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27It'll take about two weeks to get that island cleared.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30That Capability Brown has got a lot to answer for.
0:27:30 > 0:27:32He certainly has, yes.
0:27:48 > 0:27:53Back in the Carved Room, cleaning is finally completed for another winter.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57It's such a huge space it's taken all of two weeks to get the work done,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01but what a place to work, and it's so inspiring.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05And I think it goes to the heart of what makes Petworth so special.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09In this one space, you've got England's greatest wood carver creating his very finest work.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13And you've got England's greatest painter creating some of his finest paintings.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16And in both cases they were done FOR Petworth.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19The relationship between the art and the house is completely organic
0:28:19 > 0:28:23and I think that's ultimately what makes this house so magical.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd